Polyketone polymers are generally known in the art. Of particular interest among polyketone polymers is the class of linear alternating polymers of carbon monoxide and at least one ethylenically unsaturated hydrocarbon. This particular class of polyketone polymers is disclosed and claimed in numerous patents assigned to Shell Oil Company.
Functionalization of polymers is also generally known in the art. This field is very broad indeed and is well covered in both patent and open literature. Methods for functionalizing existing polymers are considered scientifically and technically valuable as they provide a means to rapidly synthesize a large number of structures. Synthesizing a single base polymer and subsequently adding ten different functional groups by a common procedure is generally much more efficient than synthesizing ten different base polymers from scratch. In addition, functionalization can give highly complex structures which cannot be produced by direct polymerization.
Functionalization of the above mentioned polyketones is difficult. Low solubility and high chemical resistance require extreme conditions to perform chemistry on polyketones. In most cases, unfortunately, the conditions required to initiate any reaction lead to rapid degradation of the polymer through crosslinking or chain scission.
It is well known that primary amines react with low molecular weight aliphatic 1,4-diketones to form pyrroles. It is also known in the art that polyethylene-co-carbon monoxide synthesized by a radical process can be induced to react with aniline to form a product which is intractable and unprocessable. However, a process has never been described whereby a high molecular weight, high melting point polyketone polymer may be reacted with a primary aromatic amine to yield a tractable, processable polymer of well-defined structure. The present invention discloses such a process by providing a method of covalently attaching other useful moieties to the polyketone chain without damaging the polymer.